Aristide: Returning Refugees Are Being Beaten, Arrested

CARACAS, Venezuela -- Haiti`s exiled president asserts that the Haitian refugees who were sent home last week have been arrested and beaten or have gone into hiding since they returned home.

The Rev. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who has lived mainly in Venezuela since he was ousted by a military coup on Sept. 30, said on Saturday night that he based his charges on reports he receives daily from supporters in Haiti.

``Some have been arrested and beaten,`` he said. ``Others are afraid and have been forced into hiding.``

``It is not a surprise,`` said Aristide, who took office a year ago as Haiti`s first democratically elected president. He referred to the military leadership as ``a criminal gang.``

More than 1,000 Haitians were sent home last week from the United States naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where they had been housed and fed since they fled their country on rickety boats in the aftermath of the coup.

Aristide bitterly assailed a United States policy that he said gives shelter to refugees from communist-run Cuba but sends back refugees to a country governed by a repressive military.

``It`s a policy of discrimination,`` he said. ``It is a systematic violation of human rights.``

``Even President Bush has recognized that Haiti is a case of a totalitarian regime,`` he said. ``These are political refugees, fleeing a totalitarian regime.``